Additives permitted in dietary foods, medical foods and supplements

Foods for special medical purposes, meal replacements for weight control, sports and supplementary foods, gluten-free foods, and food supplements.

This comparison is a starting point, not an equivalence. The four systems here do not share a vocabulary, so the categories shown for each are this site's reading of where a food in this group falls. At least one system has no category for this group, or files it somewhere much broader. Three separate divergences meet in this group. The EU has moved meal replacements for weight control to 18.2 and gluten-reduced foods to 18.3, while GB's frozen copy keeps weight-control foods at 13.3 and still holds 13.4, 'Foods suitable for people intolerant to gluten', which the EU list no longer has — the single sharpest illustration of the 28 June 2024 freeze. Food supplements are EU and GB 17 and Codex 13.6, but Schedule 15 has no food-supplement class, so nothing here maps to one in Australia or New Zealand; what Schedule 15 has instead is formulated meal replacements and supplementary foods (13.3), sports foods (13.4) and food for special medical purposes (13.5), which the Code treats as foods. Codex's 13.5 name is truncated in this site's data ('excluding products of food categories', with the list cut off), a gap in the PDF parse rather than in the standard.

What each system calls it

EU food categories

13.2 Foods for special medical purposes as defined by Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 (excluding products from food category 13.1.5.), 13.3 Total diet replacement for weight control food as defined by Regulation (EU) No 609/2013, 17 Food supplements as defined in Directive 2002/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council excluding food supplements for infants and young children, 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,, 17.2 food supplements supplied in a liquid form excluding food supplements for Infants and young children, 18.2 Meal replacement for weight control as referred to in Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, 18.3 Food specially produced to reduce the gluten content of gluten-containing ingredients or substitute the gluten-containing ingredients — 318 additives

Great Britain food categories

13.2 Dietary foods for special medical purposes defined in Directive 1999/21/EC (excluding products from food category 13.1.5), 13.3 Dietary foods for weight control diets intended to replace total daily food intake or an individual meal (the whole or part of the total daily diet), 13.4 Foods suitable for people intolerant to gluten as defined by Commission Regulation (EC) No 41/2009, 17 Food supplements as defined in Directive 2002/46/EC, 17.1 Food supplements supplied in a solid form, excluding food supplements for infants and young children, 17.2 Food supplements supplied in a liquid form, excluding food supplements for infants and young children — 313 additives

Codex food categories

13.3 Dietetic foods intended for special medical purposes (excluding products of food category 13.1), 13.4 Dietetic formulae for slimming purposes and weight reduction, 13.5 Dietetic foods (e.g. supplementary foods for dietary use) excluding products of food categories, 13.6 Food supplements — 128 additives

Australia and New Zealand food categories

13.3 Formulated meal replacements and formulated supplementary foods, 13.4 Formulated supplementary sports foods, 13.4.1 Solid formulated supplementary sports foods, 13.4.2 Liquid formulated supplementary sports foods, 13.5 Food for special medical purposes, 13.5.1 Liquid food for special medical purposes, 13.5.2 Food (other than liquid food) for special medical purposes — 281 additives

Canada, Japan, South Korea and the United States are not here. Canada writes its permissions against foods named in prose, Japan's and South Korea's standards of use name foods in their own language rather than by a category code, and the US permits most substances for use in food generally rather than by category. Their pages carry what this site holds.

Where they differ

• 6 permitted by EU and not by GB
• 210 permitted by EU and not by Codex
• 102 permitted by EU and not by ANZ
• 1 permitted by GB and not by EU
• 206 permitted by GB and not by Codex
• 96 permitted by GB and not by ANZ
• 20 permitted by Codex and not by EU
• 21 permitted by Codex and not by GB
• 45 permitted by Codex and not by ANZ
• 65 permitted by ANZ and not by EU
• 64 permitted by ANZ and not by GB
• 198 permitted by ANZ and not by Codex

A difference is not a disagreement about safety. A regulator may permit a substance in a neighbouring category, regulate it under another instrument, or simply never have been asked. Open an additive to see what each regulator actually says.

Where the ceilings differ

Permitting a substance and permitting the same amount of it are different questions. These are the additives in this group whose most permissive figure differs by a factor of four or more between systems. The category each figure comes from is shown, because a group maps to several categories in each system and the most permissive figure often belongs to one narrow food inside it. See how much is permitted.

• FD&C Yellow No. 6

  • EU10 mg/kg — 18.2 Meal replacement for weight control as referred to in Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
  • GB10 mg/kg — 17.2 Food supplements supplied in a liquid form, excluding food supplements for infants and young children
  • Codex300 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Carnauba wax

  • EU200 mg/kg — 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,
  • GB200 mg/kg — 17.1 Food supplements supplied in a solid form, excluding food supplements for infants and young children
  • Codex5,000 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monolaurate, Polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monopalmitate

  • EU1,000 mg/kg — 18.2 Meal replacement for weight control as referred to in Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
  • GB1,000 mg/kg — 13.3 Dietary foods for weight control diets intended to replace total daily food intake or an individual meal (the whole or part of the total daily diet)
  • Codex25,000 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Polysorbate 60, Polysorbate 65, Polysorbate 80

  • EU1,000 mg/kg — 18.2 Meal replacement for weight control as referred to in Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
  • GB1,000 mg/kg — 13.3 Dietary foods for weight control diets intended to replace total daily food intake or an individual meal (the whole or part of the total daily diet)
  • Codex25,000 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Sodium potassium tartrate, Sodium tartrate, Tartaric acid

  • EU100,000 mg/kg — 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,
  • Codex5,000 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Sucroglycerides

  • EU50,000 mg/kg — 13.3 Total diet replacement for weight control food as defined by Regulation (EU) No 609/2013
  • GB5,000 mg/kg — 13.3 Dietary foods for weight control diets intended to replace total daily food intake or an individual meal (the whole or part of the total daily diet)
  • Codex20,000 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Sucrose esters of fatty acids

  • EU50,000 mg/kg — 13.3 Total diet replacement for weight control food as defined by Regulation (EU) No 609/2013
  • GB5,000 mg/kg — 13.3 Dietary foods for weight control diets intended to replace total daily food intake or an individual meal (the whole or part of the total daily diet)
  • Codex20,000 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Ponceau 4R (Cochineal red A)

  • EU35 mg/kg — 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,
  • Codex300 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements
  • GBstates several limits in one listing; not reduced to a figure

• Quinoline yellow

  • EU35 mg/kg — 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,
  • Codex300 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements
  • GBstates several limits in one listing; not reduced to a figure

• Steviol glycosides from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni (Steviol glycosides from Stevia)

  • EU1,800 mg/kg — 17.2 food supplements supplied in a liquid form excluding food supplements for Infants and young children
  • Codex2,500 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements
  • ANZ330 mg/kg — 13.5 Food for special medical purposes
  • GBstates several limits in one listing; not reduced to a figure

• Polyethylene glycol

  • EU10,000 mg/kg — 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,
  • GB10,000 mg/kg — 17.1 Food supplements supplied in a solid form, excluding food supplements for infants and young children
  • Codex70,000 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Calcium saccharin, Potassium saccharin, Saccharin, Sodium saccharin

  • EU500 mg/kg — 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,
  • Codex1,200 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements
  • ANZ200 mg/kg — 13.5 Food for special medical purposes
  • GBstates several limits in one listing; not reduced to a figure

• Brilliant black (Black PN)

  • EU100 mg/kg — 17.2 food supplements supplied in a liquid form excluding food supplements for Infants and young children
  • GB300 mg/kg — 17.1 Food supplements supplied in a solid form, excluding food supplements for infants and young children
  • Codex530 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Polydimethylsiloxane

  • EU10 mg/kg — 17.1 food supplements supplied in a solid form excluding food supplements for infants and young children’,
  • GB10 mg/kg — 17.1 Food supplements supplied in a solid form, excluding food supplements for infants and young children
  • Codex50 mg/kg — 13.6 Food supplements

• Propylene glycol esters of fatty acids

  • EU1,000 mg/kg — 18.2 Meal replacement for weight control as referred to in Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
  • GB1,000 mg/kg — 13.3 Dietary foods for weight control diets intended to replace total daily food intake or an individual meal (the whole or part of the total daily diet)
  • Codex5,000 mg/kg — 13.4 Dietetic formulae for slimming purposes and weight reduction

396 additives, side by side

● a permission this site matched to one of the categories above ○ none found there. Levels and conditions differ between them; each category page has the detail.